The use of videos and photos as a source of data and tools for social research is something that has gained momentum, especially in research with migrant children and youths (CHI CAM 2007, Block and Buckingham 2007). For many anthropologists, photos and videos are often used as field notebooks (Grau Rebollo, 2008) or working tool that can be used during interviews or in the creation of personal diaries to unearth feelings, thoughts and identities in participants that would remain unexplored (Allen, 2008, Russell, 2007). However, the act of producing, viewing and examining together audiovisual data also creates the conditions to develop the intimate, collaborative potential which is inherent in the relationship between researcher and young participant (Russell, 2007). In this sense, White (2009) talks about ethnography 2.0 to refer to a space of opportunities generated by the development and availability of digital technology in the field of collaborative ethnographic research.

Based on a broader, longitudinal, multi-sited and collaborative ethnography with a group of Romanian “Roma” adolescents living in Madrid but having different experiences of urban and transnational (im)mobility, this paper aims to unveil the challenges and shortcomings linked to the collaborative creation of audio-visual products. On the one hand, the paper reflects on the use of audiovisual methods not only as a way of ‘writing with images', but a strategy to create free spaces of expression, away from any pedagogical, adult-centric, and academic-pivoted approach. On the other hand, the paper explores the potential of collaborative video-making as a projective technique, that is, as a pretext for observing the hidden associations, beliefs and feelings that characterized the young research participants.